


Pain Relief

by cleanlittlesecret



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-25
Updated: 2015-02-25
Packaged: 2018-03-15 04:58:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3434435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cleanlittlesecret/pseuds/cleanlittlesecret
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not fun being the last survivors of a dying city, especially when you're prone to headaches.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pain Relief

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't know until yesterday that the automatic invite system was back, so this was posted on tumblr first. Woops.

“I don’t want to do it.” Even with the goggles hiding Yuuto’s eyes, Shun knew he couldn’t bear to look at the house. Yuuto’s head tilted at an odd angle as he looked at Shun, some strange attempt to keep the house out of his line of sight. “I’m not going in there.” He sounded prepared for an argument, and exhaustion slumped in Shun’s chest. Even if he had the energy for arguing, he had no intention of fighting with Yuuto about something like this.

“No, you’re not.” He caught the way Yuuto’s hands loosened from tight fists. “It would be better for you to stay out here and keep watch.” It really wouldn’t—they were in what had once been a popular part of the city, and the house was hidden between two now decrepit stores on a street full of abandoned businesses. The fusion users came through the area regularly, and Yuuto staying outside while Shun went in would just make him a target, but Shun was desperate and Yuuto was stubborn. Shun opened the door. “Yell if you need me,” he said, and Yuuto nodded.

Shun knew the real reason he refused to go in, of course. He had been with him the day Yuuto had found the remains of his home. After Fusion invaded, it had taken them a week to travel a distance Yuuto had walked twice daily before, and when they finally reached his house, all they’d found was a plot of burnt rubble, something no eleven-year-old should have to see. Shun could still see _that look_ in his mind, could still hear the whimper about Yuuto’s parents having been home. He didn’t want to relive that moment ever again.

So he explored the house on his own, moving with careful steps and listening for any sound from outside. Dust and ash covered every surface, but the house appeared mostly undamaged, which promised some hope. They were in desperate need of food, so Shun went to the kitchen first. The refrigerator was an obvious lost cause, but Shun searched the rest of the room for anything that could still be edible after three years.

After opening the last cabinet to find nothing but pill bottles, Shun felt defeat sink onto his shoulders. He rested his head against the cabinet door. A bust, just like everything he had done recently. Pain flicked on in his head, flashed behind his eyes and pressed against his forehead as if seeking escape. Shun hissed and stepped back to rub his eyes. He couldn’t give up here—there had to be something he could do. Anything was better than giving up, than being helpless.

“Yuuto…” he mumbled into the musty silence. Yuuto relied on him, and he had to meet that expectation, because as things were, he had managed to let down everyone else. Shun pulled himself together and looked at the contents of the cabinet again. He didn’t trust most of the bottles, but some of them looked like they could be useful. He took the ones whose names he recognized and shoved them in his coat pockets. He thought about exploring more of the house, but before he could make a decision, a noise echoed in from outside. It sounded like a scraping, backwards roar, and Shun’s chest thrummed. _Dark Rebellion._

Shun tightened his jaw, and the pain flickered. He hurried back to the front of the house and threw the door open to find an empty sidewalk—Yuuto was gone. “ _Dammit._ ”

The thought to try calling crossed his mind, but he knew that would just make things worse. One of the first things the fusion users had done was hijack the communication system for the Duel Disks, turning any attempted calls into a flashing beacon. Shun couldn’t rely on a call to find Yuuto, so he searched for any signs of where he would have gone. Road maps bounced around his head, and with all the buildings around, there were so many places the sound could have come from. Where would Yuuto have gone to fight someone, and why was he fighting by himself?

The roar sounded again, followed by a crackle that made Shun’s skin crawl. Yuuto had to be nearby, and when Shun turned in the direction of the sound, an explosion boomed just a few buildings down the street from him. Glass shattered from what had once been the large window of some deli shop, and smoke crackling with purple electricity poured out. A rumble shook through the frame of the building as a wave of dust burst out into the street. Shun reached the empty window frame and looked in, but he couldn’t see anything through the smoke and dust.

“Yuuto!” He choked on the clogged air. Yuuto didn’t answer, but there was no doubt he was in there. Shun pulled his scarf up over his mouth and stepped through the frame into the store.

Just inside the room, some fusion soldier laid sprawled on the floor. He was unconscious, but intact—so Yuuto had held back again. The back half of the room was a mess of rubble from where the ceiling had collapsed, and as Shun reached the middle of the room, he called out again.

This time, a muffled voice answered, “I’m here.” Against the back wall, part of the rubble pile shifted, and the voice cried out in pain. “Shun!”

“I’ve got you,” Shun said as he reached the pile and started digging through the rubble. He lifted up a long ceiling panel and found Yuuto, dirty and battered, but alive. “Are you all right?”

Yuuto looked up, and Shun saw the lenses of his goggles were opaque with filth. “I told you these would be useful,” he said, pushing the goggles up onto his forehead and revealing a strip of cleaner skin around his eyes.

Shun snorted and let the ceiling panel fall to the side. If Yuuto could bring up that conversation, then he would be fine. Shun offered him a hand. “Come on, we need to go.”

Yuuto took his hand, but when Shun pulled him up, he hissed with pain. When he had gained his footing, Yuuto caught the look Shun gave him, and he ducked his head to spit out some dirt. “Don’t worry about it.”

Before Shun could respond, voices sounded out in the street, and both boys tensed.

“There’s…This way.” Yuuto led the way through the rubble to a door in the back of the shop. The two of them slipped through the kitchen and out into a narrow alley behind the building. By time the fusion users found their comrade, Shun and Yuuto were long gone.

* * *

 For Shun, fear trumped anger until the two of them had gotten out of danger. Once they had reached a safe house and set up a trap system, he let himself snap. “What the hell is wrong with you? What were you even thinking, running off like that!” Despite his anger, he kept his voice low. They both knew that even their hideouts weren’t safe from the fusion users anymore, but neither of them wanted to acknowledge it.

Yuuto sat down on the floor and leaned back against the wall, wincing until he found a position that didn’t put too much pressure on his upper back. He pulled his goggles off and scrubbed at the lenses with the hem of his cape. “Did you find any toothbrushes in that house?”

Shun ground his teeth together, and the pain flitted up his jaw and added to what was already brewing in his head. The hideout brought back memories of all the times they had fled there to regroup after losing a comrade, and by now, even the air of the place made his head hurt.

Yuuto looked up from his work, and his hands stilled. “It was only one fusion user, and I didn’t want you to fight like this.”

“Like _what?_ ” Shun snapped. “If I can’t fight, then what can I do? I won’t stand by and lose…” The pain settled behind his eyes, and Shun set his jaw to keep from cursing Yuuto. What was there left for him? Ruri was gone, taken by Fusion, and he had no way of getting her back. He didn’t even know who he could fight to free her. In the weeks since her loss, he had lost the rest of their comrades, one by one, until only Yuuto was left. There was nothing Shun could do to fix their situation, and as things were, all he did do was scrape out an existence and watch Yuuto get more worn down by the day. He couldn’t stand to be helpless, but wasn’t that what they were?

With that thought, frustration set in, and the pain in his head went nuclear. Shun slammed his eyes shut, all too aware of every sound, every smell, even the feel of his coat against the back of his neck. Things just had to get worse.

“Shun.” Yuuto spoke with a low voice probably meant to soothe Shun. When he didn’t get a response, he leaned over to tug on the tail of Shun’s coat, and Shun finally looked down at him. “Sit down. You need to rest.”

Shun braced one hand against the wall before allowing himself to slide down to sit next to Yuuto. He didn’t trust his own balance when his head hurt that much.

Yuuto watched his movements without comment, and when Shun was seated, he turned his attention back to his goggles. “You’re having a headache, aren’t you?”

“Nnn.” Shun rested his head back against the wall, although the contact did nothing but add pressure to his headache. He watched through half-closed eyes as Yuuto worked at his goggles, although without water or a proper scrubbing tool, Yuuto wasn’t making much progress. Both of them knew it was just something for him to do.

“Don’t blame yourself, Shun,” Yuuto said finally. “None of this is your fault.” As if anticipating Shun’s retort, he continued, “If you want to blame someone, blame Fusion. They’re the ones who invaded and forced us into this.” He shifted his shoulders against the wall in a search for a more comfortable position. “We’re not helpless. We’ll find a way to get everyone back, I know it.” He moved again and drew in a sharp breath, but he tried to hide it by leaning over his goggles.

Shun remembered the medicine he’d taken from the house and sat up straighter so he could pull the bottles out of his coat pocket. He held the bottles up to read the labels, wincing when the pills rattled against the sides, and Yuuto turned his head to see what was making the noise.

“You raided someone’s _medicine cabinet?_ ” Yuuto asked, his brow furrowing. He blinked when Shun held one of the bottles out towards him. “What is it?”

“Pain medicine.”

Yuuto took the bottle and opened it. “There’s only one pill in here.” He looked at Shun and shook his head. “Here, you take it. You have a headache—“

“Your back is hurt.”

“I’ll be fine,” Yuuto said, his voice starting to gain that stubbornness that Shun hated so much. The last thing Shun wanted was to get into an argument about who hurt more.

“Just take the damn medicine, Yuuto.” He closed his eyes, his own way of ending the conversation. After a few breaths, he heard the empty tap of the pill bottle against the floor. So Yuuto had listened, then.

Shun couldn’t tell how long the two of them stayed in that silence. He knew it would take more than some old painkillers to help Yuuto, but maybe it would make that day a little easier for him. The thought relaxed Shun the tiniest bit, a clear breath to ease his headache. He couldn’t do much at the moment, but he could be there with his last friend. It was a small hope.


End file.
